To ask if anyone else feels like the covid era is a bad dream

[23rMarch2020]

Whenever I think of 2020 or 2021 it just doesn’t feel real at all. The lockdowns for months on end, the clapping for the NHS, the track and trace system, entire school years being sent home because a single case was discovered, panic buying, people developing intricate methods of sanitising their shopping, public shaming of rule breakers, religious holidays being stopped at very short notice. It’s all so bizarre to think of that this was in our country so recently and, really, there’s nothing to stop any of it happening again. In so many ways it just feels like a different world, my DS who had his GCSE’s cancelled is about to go off to uni (if he gets the grades 🤞) and my then little year 7 DD is doing her own GCSE’s next year. I guess my Aibu is to ask if anyone else feels so totally disconnected from that era to the extent it’s all like a bad dream?

It was very much real and it could, and probably will, happen again within our lifetimes. There will be more pandemics, hopefully the government have learned a lesson and will respond more quickly and effectively next time.

"No I do not have a selective memory. I can look back on my old MN posts and see that my views on lockdown were exactly the same as they are now"

Me too

But schools were open for key workers. Ours was half full.

Primary schools stayed open in Sweden. And look what happened- teachers dropped like flies and the kids all press it back to their families (they didn’t).

But at least the pubs were open eh? Far more important.

Hopefully they’ll take into account damage from prolonged lockdowns and weigh up against risk

If they had moved swiftly to enforce a strong lockdown for a short period of time, and enforce it properly, it would not have been so prolonged. Short and effective is the way to go. They completely fumbled it and hopefully they have learned something.

Those of us who feared that lockdown would become policy were called conspiracy theorists and yet here we are with people saying it should be used again.

Not true at all. These are the same arguments my goodness

A short harsh lockdown would have worked whilst it was on then cases would have resurged after

There’s no zero Covid. You do see that by now surely?

It felt like there were few of us in the ‘middle’. I think our voices were drowned out by the extremists.

At one end, people bitching about neighbours, police chasing my friend’s teens because they dared to meet outside on a park one evening, GP receptionists refusing to open the door, teachers putting tape on the floor around their desk and shouting at kids who crossed it, outdoor toilets being shut so people had to poo on the ground, the list goes on. I despised so many of my smug middle class peers who wanted wfh and lockdowns to continue forever.

At the other end, conspiracy theorists thinking they had superior thinking when in fact they were all brainwashed and spouting the same spiel from telegraph, using stupid phrases like ‘clot shots’ and revelling in misinformation.

Many were in the middle. Just wanting common sense to prevail, realising that school should have opened by May/June and that the NHS should not be cancelling every clinic and procedure and furlough was ruining the economy.

It made me lose lots of faith in many people and some professions.

@Delatron we're not Sweden. We have different demographics of people, we generally live in closer proximity to each other. We have more multigenerational households. We are less healthy.
Can't you remember the numbers went up every time we reopened schools? That wasn't just people with mild colds. That was hospital admissions and deaths too.

Yeah. I mean, I missed my cousin's wedding and the 18 guests who were allowed were seated 3ft apart in facemasks in the photos. It was absolutely like some sort of Black Mirror Dystopian drama. I interviewed for my current job in June 2020 and it was the first time I'd been in a room with a stranger for 3 months. No handshake, obviously.

I cannot believe I queued an hour for Asda in woolly gloves.

Why do people argue like this? The PP you were replying to didn't say anything about supporting the pubs being open.

@SunnyEgg no zero covid as covid is now is absolutely not the same as letting the original strain run rampant through an unvaccinated, naive society. Surely you see that?

I feel the same as you. It was a nightmare and felt very lonely. Some people have told me how they loved it as they got to spend time together as a family. Not for me. I also lost a close family member and close friend during that time and I'm still upset that I didn't get to see them very much in the months leading up to their deaths.

It seems like another world. It was the most horrible time of my life. My DM died at the end of 2019 and then my Dad was diagnosed with cancer. I was only able to see him once from outside the hospice and not able to hold him.

My DP had to be given his terminal cancer diagnosis alone.

Two covid funerals and luckily DPs funeral was the day before the rule of 6 came in otherwise i couldn't have had my family with me.

Being home alone trying to home school my DD who has SN.

I think I've sort of blocked it out because it was so horrible.

One thing I have learned is that it won't take much for our so called civilised society to fall apart. Also I think that trust in authority has been irreparably damaged.

I was pregnant with diabetes during the first wave - I didn't go into a shop for well over seven months. The first time I went into Tesco afterwards I found it such an enjoyable experience 😂

I think a half full school means social distancing easier and the disease less likely to spread. One of the children in my child's year lost his father to Covid and lots of children tested positive with no symptoms and then gave Covid to parents. So I think there were good reasons for school lock-downs even though they were disruptive.

There is a middle ground between being a 'lockdown lover' and understanding that the first lockdown was a necessary decision made on our understanding of the illness at the time.

I think what was eye-opening at the time, and remains so, is the utter lack of comprehension of the concept of risk in the general public. Very very muddled people not being able to see that a measure didn't need to 100% prevent covid to be worth doing.

You still see it now on threads about speeding - people essentially saying 'well if I'm going to hit someone at 60mph I'm going to hit them at 80 so I don't see the point in keeping to the limit'.

What good would a short harsh lockdown do for Covid?

What happens when you come out of it?

I remember some of the posters. Daily stoking up fear. I wonder why they did that

Perhaps because some rose to it instead of treating the very worst, gleeful scaremongering comments with the contempt they deserved?

It does indeed all seem like a nightmare looking back, except it's not yet over ... the costs will have to be paid for years, even to future generations

Didnt work in Wales

Cases were always going to go up every time we opened up after lockdown. They surged. We forced the second wave in to autumn and winter by keeping the schools closed form months in the sprinb and summer months. Schools were closed in June and July 2020 yet cases were low. Pubs were open though! It is indefensible and sad people think so little of children’s education.

No we are not Sweden. But surely if children were huge spreaders of this virus then in Sweden huge numbers of children would have spread it to teachers and parents. They may be different but they weren’t immune to Covid!

Breaking News. Met Police are re opening one of the Partygate investigations.

Bloody hell ground hog day

Bloody partygate

Christ this country. We have some other issues going on, including huge damage from approach to pandemic.

It was horrendous for me. I had told my abusive piece of shit ex husband I wanted a divorce in the February and while he was clinging on and making our lives a misery, we went into lockdown. I’ve never felt such a sense of impending doom in my life, and it’s still in me in a way and is triggered quite often. I have been diagnosed with cPTSD and although the diagnosis centers around my husband, I actually think it was co-created by lockdown. The same physical responses I get relating to my EXH I get with Covid related things.

I went down a little side street recently, really narrow, and it had a sign saying you had to walk on opposite sides depending on direction because of Covid/social distancing. I was extremely close to a panic attack and could feel myself starting to hyperventilate just at the thought of being back in that time, it made me physically ill and I couldn’t concentrate on work the rest of the day. Thankfully my therapist had taught me lots of breathing and grounding techniques but I was literally sitting on someone’s front door step for 10-15 mins taking big exaggerated breaths with my eyes closed pretending in my mind that I was swimming in the Indian Ocean. Lockdown seriously fucked me up!!